Department of Administration Announces New Health Plan PartnersAetna and Moda Health to Focus on High Quality, Best Value Care

June 7, 2013, Juneau, AK - The State of Alaska Department of Administration announced today that it has selected Aetna to administer the AlaskaCare health insurance plans for PERS, TRS, JRS, and EPORS retirees and certain state employees. Moda Health, formerly Oregon Dental Service (ODS), has been selected to administer the state’s dental plan.

“Through the procurement process, Aetna demonstrated that it would provide the best value to the state in terms of total cost, provider network, sophistication of operations, and quality of customer service,” said Department of Administration Commissioner Becky Hultberg. “In today’s world, medical issues can be complex and expensive, to the point of overwhelming the patient. The procurement evaluation committee was especially impressed with Aetna’s proposal to provide a one-point of contact concierge approach to customer service.”

“Over the past decade, medical costs in Alaska have grown at an extraordinary rate. We look forward to working with Aetna and the medical provider community to put health care cost growth on a sustainable path.”

The selection of Aetna as the state’s Third Party Administrator (TPA) followed an extensive procurement process that began in November 2012. The Department of Administration’s procurement process sought bids from vendors in four areas: medical network and administration, pharmacy benefit management, healthcare management, and dental network and administration. The Department selected Aetna for medical network and administration, pharmacy administration, and healthcare management. In submitting its proposal, Aetna partnered with CVS Caremark, one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers in the country, for pharmacy benefit management.

The Department selected Moda Health for dental network and administration. With the addition of Moda Health, AlaskaCare will now be a part of the Delta Dental network, the largest dental network in Alaska and the U.S.

The change will be effective January 1, 2014. Members will receive welcome packets from Aetna later this fall and open enrollment will start in late November.

“We recognize the disruption that can occur for members during a TPA transition and we will be working to minimize that disruption,” said Commissioner Hultberg. “We've learned from past transitions that five to six months is needed to ensure a smooth transition from one TPA to the next and have factored that timeline into this process.”

“Our goal for the AlaskaCare plan is to provide high quality health care at a reasonable cost. As we work towards achieving this goal, we are excited to begin this new relationship with Aetna and Moda Health.”